“¡Sí se puede!” we chanted at the end of our third day of trainings and planning alongside members of Neighbor to Neighbor. We used the collective chant to wrap up a day in which we had jointly planned an action for the Holyoke Farmers’ Market. From our first introduction to the organization, it was clear that it would be a collaborative—and bilingual—experience. Climate Summer riders had an orientation led by Lena Entin, in which we learned from members about the organization’s roots; Stephen included some information about their origins and the work they’ve been doing in his blog post of a couple days ago.

Climate Summer riders and Neighbor to Neighbor members in Holyoke.

On the second day, the power of our joint efforts became clear as Ben W. led a training session on social media in Spanish. We split up to work as pairs, and I had the tremendous joy of working with Vilma Vazquez as we discovered meme-making together. At times I would have felt the software to be maddening (Where is the colorful box tool? Why is resizing so hard?) if it hadn’t been for Vilma’s positive attitude.

This is me and Velma. The paper behind us counts N2N’s recent growth.

The following day, Carlos Rodriguez led a door-to-door training session that members of other community groups participated in. Climate Summer team #WestMass was grateful to be present as we shared stories of door-to-door done well (and sometimes humorously gone awry) in Holyoke and, for the Riders, in our schools and our own hometowns. Neighbor to Neighbor has been tremendously successful using outreach that engages folks in the struggles that affect them; Rosa Gonzalez wrote on our blog about her experience getting involved with N2N.

Our farmers’ market action planning was shared by Climate Summer and N2N partners; at the market itself, we showed off our skit starring Carlos as the Mt. Tom coal plant executive successfully pressured by Vilma and Rosa as N2N members to provide clean-up work for Georgette, Dineen, and Ben (acting as former coal plant employees). We also pioneered a game in which schoolchildren at the market swept coal pollution out of a paper “Connecticut River” and saved fish.

Ben W leading the river clean-up game in Holyoke.

I felt the power of collective action as I had the honor through my role as video coordinator—along with Stephen’s help—of taking footage of our work together, as well as interviewing seven people involved with N2N in Holyoke, getting to listen to their stories and the amazing work they have done. The footage I collected, after I finish my sifting and editing, will be part of a video I am making with N2N. I am very excited for this video and hope to tell you soon that it is complete. Listening to them, I am intensely impressed by their collective work organizing for a higher minimum wage and getting the Mt Tom coal plant closed down once and for all; and I have no doubt that they will be successful in their campaigns to have the site cleaned and good jobs provided for the plant’s workers as well as the many residents of Holyoke who need work. Indeed, we can.